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Russian giant Valuev retains title

08/10/2006

Russian heavyweight Nikolay Valuev successfully defended his WBA world title for the second time in his career against American challenger Monte Barrett in Chicago.

Valuev won by technical knockout with 48 seconds remaining in the 11th round, having knocked his opponent down twice in the round before his corner threw in the towel and the referee called the fight to halt.

Despite being confident of victory the champion felt he could have done more: "I knew after the fourth or fifth round I was going to win.

"I'm never fully satisfied with my performance. My coach said I made a lot of mistakes. I hope to perform even better next time I fight."

Barrett had the best of the early exchanges but did not have the power to capitalise on his greater work rate. However, the 7ft tall, 328lb Valuev did manage to overpower his opponent knocking him down for an eight count in the eighth round.

A right uppercut seemed to have sealed the deal for Valuev when he knocked down the American for the third time overall in the fight, however Barrett showed tremendous heart and battled on until his corner pulled him out.

Valuev praised him saying: "The victory wasn't easy tonight and Monte Barrett really tried hard", adding, "Monte showed me what a great American fighter is all about".

The giant Russian's record now progresses to 45-0 with 33 knockouts.

He would not be drawn on who his next opponent would be, but did look to be trying his best to please the American public and seemed to be happy to box stateside after a five year absence.

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